Jennifer Coker

Research Associate, USA

Jennifer Coker is a researcher in the field of traumatic SCI and brain injury, based at the Craig Hospital in Colorado, USA.

She was awarded a 2018 travel grant to attend the 57th ISCoS meeting held in Sydney, Australia, where she delivered two presentations.

“I had two presentations at the meeting, a poster: The Difference between Research and Quality Improvement: Improving Evidence Based Practice, and a Rapid Fire Oral presentation: ReInventing Yourself after Spinal Cord Injury: Results from Two Randomized Controlled Trials. Both presentations were well accepted, with a packed room and a number of thoughtful questions and comments for the oral presentation. I moderated a Rapid Fire Oral session, and a technical hiccup lead to some laughs with the presenters and audience.

“I attended the Spinal Cord Research Hub (SCoRH) kickoff party, and was able to meet the staff at SRI and thank them in person for sponsoring my trip. SCoRH will be an invaluable networking tool in the SCI research community! There was a breakfast held for travel grant attendees, and we were able to meet and discuss our research and career goals. I also was part of the Developing Practical Tools for Global Research Collaborations in a Time Poor World workshop that focused on ways to foster international collaborations; breakout discussions were held, and I look forward to continuing the conversation in France in 2019.

“Another goal of the travel grants was to foster international collaborations. I reached out to Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA), a not-for-profit organization who provides community-based services to help people with SCI overcome barriers, achieve their goals and live fulfilling personal, social and professional lives. Although SCIA is not a research institute, they were very interested in the research I am doing and we have continued our conversations, with discussions of future collaborations.” (Report extract.)